KEVIN NARRO | Valley Morning Star
HARLINGEN — On a night when Harlingen South clamped down on San Benito star Miranda Vallejo, it was Mikayla Garcia who stepped in with a game high 16 points to lead the Lady Hounds to a 44-17 win over the Lady Hawks on Friday.
“To be honest, before the game my shots weren’t falling,” Garcia said. “I didn’t think I was going to have a good shooting night but once the game started I just started hitting my shots and it all worked out.”
San Benito is now 7-2 in District 32-6A and stayed tied for second with Harlingen High, which beat Weslaco East on Friday. The Lady Hounds have three games remaining on the schedule with their next game coming on Tuesday at home.
“We have a big game against Hanna before we face the two titans in our district Harlingen and Weslaco,” said San Benito head coach Abel Moreno. “We continue to work hard and our goals have stayed the same, and that’s to win a district title.”
The Lady Hounds rode the three ball from Garcia in the opening quarter and raced out to a 20-11 lead early in the first quarter to set he tone for the rest of the night.
South’s defense held Vallejo in check with only four points in the first half. Vallejo finished with 11 points in the win while Emilee Barraza also checked in 11 points.
San Benito’s defense held the Lady Hawks scoreless in the third quarter and took full control, leading 36-14 at the end of the third quarter. In the second half, San Benito outscored Harlingen South 18-3.
“When we lost to Los Fresnos we realized we needed to be more aggressive on defense,” Moreno said. “We were letting a lot of teams come at us so we started to play more aggressive by closing gaps and working on our down screens. We worked hard to get those things right and now we fixed them, and tonight it showed.”